Below is what I shared with him.

• Wake up tired because I stayed up too late the night before.
• If time permits, my wife and I pray and read the Bible together (just finished Ezekiel). This ends up happening anywhere from 1 to 3 times a week.
• Head off to the church office where I try to prioritize my time. I’m usually multitasking several things at once, so I almost never eat lunch because I don’t want to interrupt “the groove.”
• Around 2 PM I start getting frustrated that I’m still in the office because I want to use the summer months to hang out with teens, but there’s always so much else to do. Sometimes I drop it all and go hang out anyway. Other times I keep plowing through to-do lists.
• If I stay in the office for the afternoon, I head home around 4:00 because I’m so hungry and want to see my wife. I go straight to the frig and try not to eat too much so it spoils dinner, but enough to calm my stomach.
• Depending on what night of the week it is, my wife and I go out to a high school small group, have jr. highers at our house, go to birthing classes at the hospital, have youth group parents over for dinner, hang out with kids, or other random youth leader meetings or church meetings. Although it’s a bit unusual, the past two weeks we had only one evening at home alone.
• Around 9:00 or 10:00 PM, my wife and I are finally alone at home and can relax for the rest of the evening. She’s pregnant and usually goes to bed earlier than I want to, so I stay up and enjoy the peace and quiet. I love that time to myself with no interruptions and the freedom to do whatever I want to do, nothing else going on, nowhere I have to be, no one I have to talk to. Because I love it so much, I end up staying up way too late, sometimes to 3:00 AM or later, which makes me tired for the next day again until Fridays and some Saturdays when I can sleep in and catch up on rest.

Can anyone else identify?

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• I’m writing a book that will be published sometime within the next couple months. It’s taking forever to do that while continuing to write here at the same time.
• There’s lots of planning and vision casting that needs to be done for fall student ministry at my church.
• My wife is due with our first child on August 7 and there’s still a lot of prep that needs to be done.
• Some major changes are coming to this site within the next several weeks.

Throw in other things like my wedding anniversary and lots of late summer nights with youth group kids and it becomes difficult to maintain quality posts here every day. Something has to give for the time being. I’ll still keep the regular Time Outs, Freebie Fridays, and LIVE YM Talks going along other random posts here and there, but overall I’ll be slowing down a bit.

Dana and I would greatly appreciate it if you would remember to pray for us during this life transition stage with the baby coming, fall ministry approaching, and my side-projects of the book and a relaunch of Life In Student Ministry. Once the overhaul of this site takes place, I’m sure I’ll be back in the full swing of things here, especially with the Youth Ministry Mentorship gearing up for another round.

If you’d like to keep up with what’s going on personally for me and my wife over the next couple weeks, read her blog and follow both of our Twitter accounts (mine: rockinyp; hers: danadelynn).

Thanks for your prayers and support! Looking forward to serving you and your student ministry even better in a couple weeks from now.

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Last week I “preached” twice: once at our community’s high school baccalaureate service and again at all three church services for Graduation Sunday. After each time, people tell me, “Tim, you did a great job!” Sometimes I feel they’re just saying that because they’re not sure how else to start a conversation with me after I was just on stage in front of everyone. Other times I sense that they truly are genuinely thankful for the message. But either way, I’ve found that I really wish I could remove myself from too much praise or criticism right after teaching. In fact, despite wanting to hang around after the baccalaureate service and talk with seniors, I left right away.

My buddy, Tony Myles, wrote something several years ago that has stuck with me. He said:

“I am most vulnerable to criticism right after a sermon, and tend to take [criticism] too deeply in that moment. Likewise, it’s the worst time for me to hear affirmation because then my ego just gets bigger.”

That is so totally true for me. After the baccalaureate I really had to distance myself from all the praise because I was hearing it too much. So I left. Preaching at church last weekend felt somewhat similar. Moments after I finish teaching, I’m way too emotionally attached to the message and vulnerable to really hear anything objectively, whether praise or criticism. I really need about a day to pass before I can respond to feedback with a level head. Otherwise I get too cocky or hurt, depressed, or defensive.

While attending Dallas Theological Seminary, one of my professors, Howard Hendricks, called “sermon praise” the “glorification of the worm.” I am, in fact, a lowly worm, a very inadequate vessel for communicating God’s Word. Anything good that comes as a result of anything I say is solely a work of the Holy Spirit, not me. I’m so thankful that He chooses to work in spite of me, never because of me.

My goal in this was: 1) to refocus on how I can best spend the limited and valuable time I have with teens while they’re still in jr. high and high school; and 2) to find what was in common with the tasks I felt change lives and use that common denominator to help focus and refine the ministry for our big launch in the fall. Not surprisingly, most of the things in the “Absolutely worth my time” category are relational and are not task-oriented.

You may disagree with how I rated some of my tasks, and that’s fine. I go back and forth on some of them myself. If you and I were able to sit down and have a face to face conversation, you could hear my heart and why I evaluate some things the way I do. For most of them, I just went with my first gut reaction without wrestling back and forth a whole lot. Otherwise, it would get way too complicated.

Regardless, I’d love to hear your reaction to some of the tasks below. How would you rate them for you and your ministry? What day-to-day ministry items are totally worth your time and what items are just busy-work to appease tithers, your sr. pastor, or even yourself?

[ RSS and email subscribers, you may need to visit this post to see the embedded list. ]

• This Sunday 56 jr. highers are giving their testimonies in church via video that I have to finish shooting and editing.
• There’s an end-of-the-year jr. high party next week I’ve barely starting planning
• Sr. high ministry evaluations need to be written and handed out
• My youth budget receipts need to be balanced and turned in (they were due last Monday)
• The summer youth schedule needs to be handed out next and I haven’t even started putting it together
• A news email needs to go out with reminders and updates about things going on this Sunday and next week
• I need to write my lesson for Sunday night’s sr. high large-group meeting

And that’s just the beginning of it!

So this afternoon when a prayer meeting with other local youth pastors was drawing closer, I looked at the clock and thought to myself, “There is no way I can make it to that meeting this afternoon. I have way too much to do. I don’t have time to pray today.” Then I paused and thought, “Wait, did I seriously just think that?” I chuckled to myself and realized my priorities were totally out of wack. Just the fact that a thought like that crossed my mind was very convicting. What else could possibly be a better use of my time than spending time in prayer? Sure, I’m busy and a bit stressed right now, but shouldn’t that be the very time I stop to pray instead of trying to haul through it in my own strength?

Needless to say, I put everything on hold and went to that prayer meeting. It was great! Us youth pastors met at a local church and car-pooled to a park where we talked, shared, and prayed together. Then, to top off the day, I destressed by meeting up with brother and cranked out a 37 mile bike ride with him in the country farm land. Nothing like riding through God’s creation to put everything back in perspective again.

Are you too busy to pray today?

This exercise is a bit morbid, but very insightful for bringing the horizon back in focus for your ministry. You’ll need half an hour or so to do it properly.

1. Write an obituary for your ministry 10 years in the future

Project the ministry forward 10 years. Imagine that the Lord takes you home with Him having accomplished the vision He placed on your heart. Write a short obituary about your ministry as you’d like other people to have experienced it.

Keep in mind that your ministry has been as “successful” as it can be and the Lord calls you home at the peak of its game.

• What do you want people to say about the ministry?
• How do you hope it will be perceived?
• What will people respect about it the most?
• What new ground has it broken for the Kingdom?
• How has it partnered with the Holy Spirit for life-change in people’s lives?

Take some time to write this obituary and dare to dream big.

2. Write an obituary for your ministry as it stands today

Okay, back to the present. Let’s just say that your life on earth ended today. Perhaps you were killed in a car accident, maybe silently in your sleep, or maybe you choked playing Chubby Bunny at youth group – it really doesn’t matter – the exercise remains the same.

Write an obituary for your ministry as you see it now.

• What do others say about it?
• Will it continue without you?
• What difference is it making in people’s lives?
• Is it breaking new ground for the Kingdom?
• Is it a reflection of what a healthy ministry should look like?

The key to it is to look at the two obituaries and compare them. Reflect on the differences.

Once you’ve compared your two obituaries, the next step is to spend a considerable amount of time in prayer, asking the Lord to enable you to move from the present reality to the big dream for the future. These sorts of dreams don’t just happen because you spend more time in the office, invest more money, or try harder. Rather, they are the result of spending time with the Lord, allowing Him to continually work through you, and often taking faith risks that may feel very uncomfortable.

If you’d like to share your obituaries (or at least what you discovered in writing them) in comments below I’d be interested to read what the Lord lays on your heart.

1. Communicating a clear vision for my ministry is probably the most important thing for my leadership, building trust, and the kids’ spiritual growth.
2. I need to utilize parents in every aspect of the ministry as much as possible.
3. Saying “no” to teenagers and parents is very critical to the health of our ministry.
4. I must always lead by example. I should never expect the teenagers to follow my challenges until I am first modeling it in my own life.
5. I will not always have a great relationship with every teenager, and that’s okay.
6. Everyone has different expectations of the youth ministry and most of them I can respectfully ignore if the vision is clearly communicated.
7. People don’t naturally follow until they know where they’re going and why.
8. I need to keep my teaching to jr. highers much more concrete with only one clear “big idea.”
9. It’s okay to let parents and teens take personal responsibility for raising funds for youth trips and events.
10. I am very intolerant of people who distort the Gospel.
11. Most kids really do want to go deep into God’s Word more than they want to play games, even unbelievers.
12. I can do almost anything if I have my wife’s love and support.

For over a year now I’ve been getting free stuff from freebie sites online. The list of prizes I’ve received is too long to name each item individually, but here’s a start:

• FREE Xbox 360 Elite, 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription, Halo 3
• FREE 16 GB iPod Touch
• FREE 32 GB iPod Touch
• and thousands of dollars in cash from the iPhone site, PS3 site, Wii site, and more.

Check out those links above for pictures and screenshots of the free iPod Touches, Xbox 360 Elite, and PayPal cash payments as proof that I really do get this stuff for free. For example, here’s the 16 GB iPod Touch I got for free and the Xbox 360 Elite I also got for FREE (click to see full-size):

Interview with co-owner of Bonus Network

Recently I was fortunate enough to be able to interview a co-owner of the Bonus Network, the company I use that gives all this stuff (and more) away. Watch it below:

List of Bonus Network sites

*The login you create at one Bonus Network site is valid for all the other sites.

Prizes	Sign-up Link	100% Legit
iPod Touch, Nano, Classic, Shuffle, cash	BonusiPod.com
iPhone, Apple gift card, cash	BonusiPhone.com
Wii, Wii Fit, cash	BonusWii.com
Xbox 360, Halo 3 edition, Xbox 360 Elite, cash	BonusXbox360.com
PlayStation 3 (40 GB), PlayStation 3 (80 GB), cash	BonusPS3.com
Laptops from Apple, Sony, HP, Dell, more, cash	BonusLaptops.com
Plasma TVs from Samsung, Sony, LG, more, cash	BonusPlasmas.com

How it works

1. Click one the sites listed above and sign up there to create an account.

2. Complete 1 or 2 trial offers (like Blockbuster, Netflix, a credit history check for $1.00, etc.) to reach 100% credit (found under the “Offers” tab when logged in to the Bonus site).

3. Use the your referral link found on the “Status” page of your account to give to other people to sign up for the site and also complete 1 or 2 trail offers.

4. Once they do so, receive your prize for FREE!

My story

It honestly isn’t any more difficult than that. I know it sounds too good to be true, but I promise it is 100% credible. I’ve received so many prizes that I actually stopped blogging about each one as to not annoy you all with it each time. Seriously, just try it out. I guarantee it works and is completely legitimate.

My total out-of-pocket expenses for all the trial offers combined that I’ve completed is about $100. Not bad for an Xbox 360 Elite, Xbox Live Gold, Halo 3, two iPod Touches and thousands of dollars in cash! Some of the offers are even completely free and others cost only $1.00. Just try out an advertiser’s service for a period of time, get some friends to do the same through your Bonus Network referral link, and you get your free prize. Here’s a summary I wrote a while back about my experiences with some of the trial offers I’ve completed so far. (Note that not all of the offers I mention are still available.)

Here are 10 ideas for getting referrals, which is exactly how I earn them myself. And after your first prize shows up, it becomes very easy to earn more because now you have proof for anyone who is skeptical. After I got my Xbox 360 Elite, I tried for an iPod Touch and it took only 5 days to get all the referrals I needed because everyone actually saw my Xbox and knew it would work, because it does!

And as Fehz said in the video above, Bonus Network guarantees that you will receive credit for any trial offer you do with an advertiser through them, even in the rare case that something goes wrong with it. All you have to do is send Bonus a copy of your confirmation email from the advertiser and they will gladly give you full credit for your efforts, so there’s really no risk in trying it.

Common excuses

Most people would love to earn some of these free prizes, but there’s three common excuses:

1. It’s a scam!
2. I’ll get hit with a ton of spam mail.
3. Completing offers costs more than the prize itself!
4. I don’t think I can get others to complete referrals for me.

For #1, check out the links above. I’ve done it several times and received several prizes, so I know it’s not a scam. Concerning #2, I have not received one single shred of spam as a result of completing these trial offers or freebie sites, not via email nor postal mail. These companies actually have pretty aggressive privacy statements. Number 3 also is not true. As I said above, I’ve paid about a total of $100 out-of-pocket for all these free things combined. The most I ever paid for a single offer was $24.98 for a sheet of photo stamps. Most offers cost between absolutely nothing and $5. And about #4, check out this post I wrote that gives 10 ideas for how to earn referrals for your freebie site. They work for me, anyway!

If you have any questions about the process, I’ve done it many many times, so feel free to ask in the comments below. Fehz, a co-owner of the Bonus Network, will also be around this post in case you have any questions for him, too.

My wife has a better blog record of our financial journey than I do, including the day we met with the financial adviser from church and started this process, the day we finally paid off the credit cards, and her debt-free post from this week. Now, here we are and we don’t owe a dime to anyone. Instead of sending our paychecks to other people (with interest), we get to use what God has blessed us with to bless others and our future family.

It really is an amazing feeling to be in control of your money, to eliminate financial stress, and to be good stewards of the resources God provides, no matter how large or how small they might be.

The process was very difficult for me, especially since Dana and I live on a youth pastor salary. Our bare bones monthly budget hardly balanced with my income! But as we started they journey in obedience to Him, the Lord really honored that and blessed us beyond our dreams. Over the course of the year, a got a raise at church and a health insurance situation that increased my income by $10,000 per year. Plus, the Lord provided work for Dana, prompted random people to give us financial gifts, my website started making money (even though it’s all free), and He gave us discipline to live on very tight budget: no eating out, no seeing movies, limited travel, and saying “no” to things that normally would cause us to splurge. It was tough, but as Dave Ramsey says, “Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else,” and that’s exactly what we did!

A lot of people criticized our plan. Debt is unfortunately such a normal part of the American psyche that most people never consider what life might be like without it. Many “smart investor” people also told us that’s it’s foolish to pay off debt for many different reasons. The funny part is, they’re all broke! I’ll never take financial advice from a broke person! If they lost their jobs, they’d quickly start missing payments and within months would be filing for bankruptcy. Owing different companies a lot of money does not make you rich nor financially secure. In fact, this entire world would be a very different place if people followed this simple plan: Spend less than you make!

Dana and I paid off $21,521.66 in 15 months. When we started we estimated it would take over 2 years. Obviously, we did it in about half that time, not because we have a huge income, but because God blessed us once we started getting on track with our finances.

Our next steps are to save an emergency fund of 3-6 months worth of expenses. Once that is complete, we’ll start investing, saving for retirement, and especially saving for a down-payment on a house. Mathematically it will take us 2 or 3 years until we’re in a position to buy a house, but God has already proven that math doesn’t work right when He’s involved with the finances — He blesses like crazy!

I know he’ll do the same for you! Start by reading Dave Ramsey’s book, Total Money Makeover and checking out his website at DaveRamsey.com. I also HIGHLY recommend subscribing to his free podcast in iTunes and listening to 40 minutes of his radio show (commercial free) as your time permits. It will change your life.

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A Focused Vision

This year our philosophy of ministry was greatly simplified. No more mission statement, purpose statement, vision statements, core values, strategies, etc. It was confusing for most people and very difficult to communicate. It left the vision for the ministry’s forward spiritual movement very fuzzy and unfocused for students, adult leaders and even me!

Now all those statements are boiled down together. The purpose is the mission, which is also the vision, which is also our core values and strategy all wrapped up into one, easy-to-remember vision: “Deep and Wide Youth Ministry.” We want to take teenagers deep into the Word so they become spiritually passionate believers who take the gospel wide to the lost people around them.

Beginning to Implement the Vision

The implementation of Deep & Wide is starting to work itself out in a variety of ways.

• Sr. High C3 renamed to Impact: “We come to be spiritually impacted so we can go out there and make a spiritual impact.”
• At Impact, we’re going through 30 core questions of Christianity, essentially summarizing 30 key areas of systematic theology.
• C-Groups continued to be a place where high school students can build relationships with other believers in a small group setting and be challenged to go deep in the Word.
• All teenagers were trained to share their faith using Pray, Pursue, Persuade: pray for 5 unsaved friends, pursue a relationship with them where you bring God up in conversation, and lovingly persuade them into a relationship with Christ.
• All teenagers also were taken through the G.O.S.P.E.L. Journey, where we traced the Lord’s plan of salvation through the entire Bible.
• Jr. High went through an in-depth study of the entire New Testament in The Journey small groups. This year they will go through the entire Old Testament.
• The Belize missions trip was geared to take kids deep into the Word by spending an hour alone in the Lord every morning, teaching times, and through debriefing/reflection together on what God was doing through us. They were also challenged to go wide with the gospel as we shared our faith with adults, children and teenagers alike. Many came to faith in Christ as a result!
• M.U.U.U.C.E. served as a good kick-start for getting into the Word this school year and introducing new 7th graders to each other as they got ready to go through the New Testament together in The Journey.
• Wake ‘n Ski did not meet its “go wide” focus. It is being evaluated for next year.
• 30 Hour Famine was organized and let by high school student, Sara Wadi. She did an outstanding job of coordinating the event to raise funds for providing food, education, clothing, medical attention, and the gospel message to starving children in other countries. The money we raised literally “went wide.”
• Since our vision for Deep & Wide Youth Ministry was still taking shape, our winter ski trip to Big Sky in Montana did not really fall into it any specific way. That will obviously have to be evaluated if we do the ski trip again.
• M.O.V.E. 2008 was a great opportunity to serve the community of Minneapolis by cleaning a facility that provides furniture to individuals and families entering society (immigrants, ex-convicts, etc.). We also assembled a lot of donated furniture for them, as the hands and feet of Jesus.

As we launch into the upcoming year, we intend to make Deep & Wide much more pointed and integrated. The transition began last year and it will continue throughout next year, too, as we evaluate everything and seek the Lord’s direction for our ministry. Hopefully by 2010 Deep & Wide will be be the driving force behind everything that happens in the youth ministry. The life-change and growth we’ve experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg of how God wants to bless His work here.

Where the Vision is Going

Our goal is to become more Christlike, as scripture commands (Rom. 8:29; 12:2; etc.). This does not mean that we only strive to become more perfect with less sin, as many Christians think. It actually means that our heart for lost people must continually grow because, ultimately, that’s the very reason why Christ came to earth in the first place – out of a love and burden for lost people. To become more like Christ means that our hearts share His desire to see sinners come to faith in Him. This evangelism aspect of discipleship should be a part of the spiritual journey every believer takes. We want to see teenagers become more Christlike, in both spiritual maturity (Luke 2:52) and in a heart for lost people (Matthew 28:18).

We believe that evangelism and discipleship are not intended to be separate. Traditionally, small groups and Bible studies are seen as discipleship opportunities and evangelism is usually reduced to a special event or a project where students outsource the gospel message to someone on a stage. Matthew 28 says to “Go and make disciples.” Evangelism is a vital part of discipleship and personal spiritual growth.

• This next year I will intentionally to share the gospel clearly at every youth meeting so our kids hear it, know it and share it. And also for any unbelievers who might be present because nothing else we talk about in youth group means a thing if someone present doesn’t know Christ.
• This next year I will take teenagers deep into the Word by teaching theology and pushing them to be obedient to the application of the Word to their lives as they go wide with the gospel message. That means internalizing these principles myself first and modeling it for them.

The highlight of the weekend for me was this conversation with an incoming 7th grader:

Sitting next to each other on the grass, he looks at me with a very concerned expression and says, “I just felt the earth rumble!”

Me: “Are you sure?”

7th grade boy: “Yes! The earth just shook!”

Me: “Oh, I farted, that’s all.”

He looks at me in amazement for a second and then says, “WOW! That’s incredible!” lol He totally believed me! I didn’t have the heart to tell him that such a feat is absolutely impossible.

Check out the video of our trip and lots of pictures. (I made that sweet video at Animoto.com in about 5 minutes. You should seriously check out Animoto for your youth group highlight videos.)

Annual Parent/Student Info Meeting

Every year toward the end of the summer we have our annual parent/student youth ministry information meeting. Last Sunday evening was that time for us. A couple people saw me twittering about it as I pulled materials together and asked for an overview of what I do with parents and teenagers at this annual meeting. Here’s the outline of our agenda:

• Look back on last year’s ministry (reflections, ideas, events, highlights, lessons learned, etc.)
• Cast the vision for next year’s ministry (I taught an overview of Deep & Wide.)
• What that vision looks like in our ministry (a breakdown of every weekly meeting and event, who it’s for, where it’s at, what they’re studying, introducing leaders, etc).
• An overview of a couple big annual events we do each year.
• Communication (how the youth ministry communicates with students and parents, where to find info and stay up-to-date, how to get on mailing lists, overview of our youth group website, parent newsletter, etc.)
• Q&A

The meeting is mostly for families of incoming 7th graders and those transitioning from jr. high to high school. It’s also for new families who joined our ministry during the school year and want an overview of the whole ministry. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to communicate our vision and the movement of the ministry as a whole so people don’t get too lost in just their individual little area of it.

Throughout the years I’ve grown to not only love Dana more and more, but to appreciate many things about her (in no particular order).

1. She helps remind me that my relationship with God comes before anything else. Not only by asking me about it, but by setting an example. Often I come to bed at night to find her reading her Bible or asking to do devotions together when I’m preoccupied with something less important (which is everything at that point).

2. She loves youth ministry! As long as I’ve known her she’s been serving teenagers in church ministries, both as the paid leader and as a volunteer. She does very well in both roles and is one of the best small group leaders I’ve ever seen. Her passion for her jr. high girls is very contagious. Often we go to orchestra concerts and games together at her initiative.

3. One look at my desk will prove very decisively that I’m not the most organized person in the world. I lose important papers, toss things on the floor, and hate doing administrative work. However, Dana actually excels in these areas. I don’t know where I’d be without her!

4. She is always 100% supportive of me and all my dreams and ideas for youth ministry, even when other people have their doubts. She listens intently, prays with me, and most importantly, prays for me all the time.

5. Many times I’ve brought paperwork home from the church office for Dana to do for me, which she does gladly. She’s so much better at balancing budget sheets and organizing supply lists than I am. Plus, then it actually gets done on time, which makes me look good.

6. She thinks I’m funny (sometimes)! Even when I try to be funny and am totally not, she at least roles her eyes and gives me a smile that’s something a bit more than a sympathy laugh.

7. I’m excited about having children one day because she’s going to be the world’s best super-mom. She has a degree in Elementary Education and loves teaching children. My kids are gonna be the smartest kids in the world and it’s not because they have a smart daddy.

8. Dana works hard to keep herself in shape for me. She works out, reads health books and tries to eat right, not because she likes exercise and nutrition (she hates it!), but because she loves me and understands that, like all men, I am physically oriented. And it pays off. She’s hot! (Hold on, I’ll brb…)

9. Dana is incredibly fun! She likes some nerdy computer stuff, many of the same TV shows I enjoy, and she’ll kick your butt in Halo and most other Xbox games. She even wrestles me in our living room, but always looses no matter what moves I try to teach her. (We differ on country music, though. Ugh, it’s awful!)

10. When Dana and I were first married, I did all of the cooking because she didn’t know how. But now, two years later, she’s digging out cookbooks and creating some great meals for us! I know she does it because she loves me, not because I made her sick too many times.

If you’re interested, my wife blogs at A Child of God Educating Other Children. You can also follow her on Twitter.

I updated our youth group website as regularly as possible with updates and pictures for parents back home. If you’re interested, you can see them at AlexandriaYouth.com.

The trip was a HUGE growing and learning experience for me. Not only in the year-long preparations leading up to the trip, but on the field, as well. Here are some of the biggies that I should have done differently.

My Mistakes

1. I failed to meet daily with the adult leaders. Now that I think back on it, I feel like slapping my forehead and saying, “No duh!” I do this on every other trip, why not this one? Somehow it slipped my mind. The result was a disunified team of adult leaders (6 of us total) that led to a lot of frustration and communication issues.

2. I failed to listen to the advice of someone older and wiser. Ouch. Yeah, I did, and found out later that the adult was absolutely correct. The consequences meant that two girls got sick the next evening and had to miss out on ministry opportunities. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I learned the lesson even though I originally felt 100% confident that my decision.

3. I failed to keep careful track of finances. I tracked them, but not nearly as closely as I should have. It got confusing because I had to use a lot of cash, villages don’t usually give receipts, factoring the exchange rate, a couple big Visa expenses and the fact that the cash was spread out among several adult leaders. Fortunately God made sure there was enough money for everything, including an unexpected fee to exit Belize, but it still added a level of unnecessary stress to the trip.

4. I went to bed too early. The last couple nights on the trip most of the teenagers stayed up late talking and hanging out with each other, which was fine. However, I was physically and emotionally drained and just wanted to go to sleep, so I did. Looking back on it, though, those were probably the most opportune times to really connect with the teens on a personal level. Sacrificing an hour or two of sleep those final nights to stay up with them would’ve been worth it.

My “Corrects”

Although I made some mistakes and would change some things if I could go back and do it again, I didn’t do everything wrong. Some things I actually did really well.

1. I was able to stretch kids out of their comfort zone without making them snap. That’s a hard balance to achieve sometimes — knowing when to push them and how far without pushing them over the edge. I feel that the adult leaders and myself found that balance and did a good job of pushing when appropriate and easing up when it was too much.

2. I spent an hour in quiet time with the Lord every day. So did our teenagers, not just me, and man, it makes all the difference in the world.

3. I utilized the gifts and talents of each teenager. It’s temping to try to fit teenagers into our agenda because it makes the agenda so much easier to lead and to follow, but instead we determined the strength of most of the teenagers and made assignments based on that. The result was that each student excelled personally and thus the team worked together like oiled gears in a clock.

4. I remained calm and steady despite emotional stress. Most people don’t realize the emotional toll a trip like this can have on the leader until they’ve actually been in that position themselves. It can be pretty intense at times, but throughout it all the Lord enabled me to remain calm and level-headed. One teenager noticed and even commented on it in front of the group.

Pics and Vids

• Pictures from our trip here.
• Here’s the highlight videos I made of the trip.

As you know, Tim is very susceptible to sin. To attack certain areas would be a waste of time, but other areas have been a struggle in his life for years. Hit him there and hit him hard! After several years of your diligence you can probably let him go and he’ll function on his own in sin. Just check up on him every once in a while and make sure our plan is still operating as planned.

As you might have noticed in your initial observations of Tim, he becomes the weakest under two conditions: First, when his is stressed and usually upset about another area of his life. Take advantage of these opportunities! Create stress in his relationships, his ministry, his family, his finances, and any other area that is close to him. Second, when he is unmotivated to do the tasks he knows he must do. Catch him when he has a lot of work. In fact, keep him distracted by creating many unnecessary tasks that seem really important!

On the outside he appears to many people to be the perfect guy, someone people of all ages admire, respect, and trust. However, sometimes his own hypocrisy defeats him on the inside as he struggles with God working effectively through his gifts but seemingly inactive with the areas in which he desperately needs God’s transformation.

The odd thing with Tim that you should probably be aware of is that he often doesn’t see a payoff in defeating his struggle. He knows sin will destroy him and his relationship with God. He thinks about it often and finds ways to fight it, but somehow he eventually returns to his folly anyway. It’s really quite comical. He’s a perfect example of a fool returning to his vomit.

I’ve tried convincing him that it’s not a big deal — no one is perfect and everyone struggles with sin. Sometimes he buys the excuse, but then the H.S. (you know who I mean) reminds him that Christ is the standard, not other people around him. Watch out for those times and intensify the pressure until he cracks.

I trust that ensuring Tim’s demise will be a fairly easy assignment for you, Wormwood. Check on him once in a while and make sure our plan is successful. Otherwise, don’t worry — he’s a fool.

Have fun!
Screwtape

Throughout the time format shift I was concerned that we’d confuse some of the new believers in our group by going too deep too fast, but actually the Bible became more intriguing for them and they started asking deeper questions. They wanted to see that there’s an element of mystery to the Scriptures, not have all mystery removed by shallow Sunday school answers.

I also anticipated that some of the kids might start to drop out since the Bible study was now three times longer than usual, but actually the opposite happened — some started inviting friends on their own initiative. New students are still coming almost every week! Our Sr. High room is now jam-packed with kids filling every couch, sitting all over the floor and even spilling out into the entry-way.

I’m embarrassed by this realization: kids don’t come to youth group because they need me to organize dodge ball for them; they come because they want to be deeply challenged in their faith. They’re tired of superficial churchy Bible lessons from some one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter curriculum manufacturer — they want to move from spiritual milk to solid food (1 Peter 2:2; Hebrews 5:11-14) and I regret to say that my approach to youth group was not facilitating the process as it should have. No longer am I essentially bribing kids to church with fun stuff and then quickly throwing in some Bible stuff before they run out the door.

After gaining feedback from a couple high school students, we decided to continue with the current format of 10-15 minutes of games and/or worship with 75 minutes of in-depth Bible study. In fact, the two choices between which studies to do next were How To Study The Bible, based on my Bible college and seminary notes, or systematic theology! We decided to start with an in-depth 6-week series on the former (with homework!) and will pick up the latter next. Just last week I spent about 15 hours preparing for How to Study the Bible and I’m pumped! (Sorry, can’t share my notes here because it’s heavily based on copyrighted material from my former Bible college and seminary professors, but the book I’m distributing to the kids is: “Living By The Book,” by Howard Hendricks.)

Dare 2 Share’s Deep and Wide Ministry Thesis ties in exactly with what is happening at our Sr. High large-group meetings: as teens grow deeper in their faith, they become more passionate and reach more people for Christ. Likewise, Mark Batterson is drawing the same conclusions when he blogged last week, “It seems to me that emerging generations don’t want watered-down, dumbed-down, or soft-sell versions of the truth. I think they want to be challenged and confronted.” Willow Creek’s REVEAL study is showing that the exact same thing is also true for adults. In fact, Willow is changing their entire ministry strategy because of it, and I think I am, too.

Now to call a couple kids and see who wants to go out to eat after school tomorrow…

In 1980 I was born to a newlywed couple living in Pennsylvania. My Dad graduated from seminary a few years before and in 1981 accepted a pastorate position at a church in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the church he still pastors to this very day. I grew up in that church and watched my Dad in ministry every day. Even at a young age, one thing became clear: I did NOT want to be a pastor. I saw a lot behind the scenes of leading a church and I had absolutely no desire to want to deal with those things myself one day. Regardless, my parents made me and my siblings help lead a lot of ministry-related aspects of the church, such as leading music, sharing testimonies, and teaching Bible studies to adults and peers. They raised us to see the church not as a place that we merely attend, but rather a place where we participate and lead others. It was a place where we had a responsibility to serve.

Being a smaller church, we didn’t have a youth group until my teen years when some other parents in the church decided to pull us together once a week for a “youth group meeting.” Looking back, I can tell that their hearts were in the right place, but the meetings actually did more to push me away from youth group than anything else. I participated because I was a P.K. and it was expected that I show my support.

The first turning point came during high school when my Dad strongly encouraged me to attend a leadership breakfast hosted by Student Venture, the high school ministry of Campus Crusades for Christ. Despite knowing absolutely no one there, Dad dropped me off at the breakfast that cold rainy morning and arranged for some Student Venture leader named Bob Klein (pictured to the right) to drive me home afterwards. It turned out that Bob wanted to get together with me again after that drive home. I don’t remember agreeing to it, but the next thing I know I was attending the weekly Student Venture meetings and spending one-on-one time with Bob. Before long, he was frequently taking me out to lunch, teaching me how to share my faith using the Four Spiritual Laws and letting me tag along with him as he witnessed to complete strangers and hung out with kids after school.

The second turning point came while I was hanging out with Bob one afternoon, watching him share his faith with a group of random students at a pizza shop hang-out. I had seen him do this many times before, so I nonchalantly sipped on my lemonade while he did his thing. About the time he would usually introduce the Four Spiritual Laws, he instead handed me the booklet and said, “Tim is going to show you how you can have a relationship with God and enjoy heaven with Him one day.” I choked on my drink! I reluctantly took the booklet, though, and went through it with them the best I knew how. Afterwards Bob debriefed with me about the experience and shortly thereafter I was helping him plan Bible lessons, outreach events and follow-up discipleship with new believers from the high school. It was through my relationship with Bob that youth ministry became contagious, almost an attitude or a way of life. He pushed me out of my comfort zone many times, challenged my faith and capitalized on the strong ministry legacy my parents had left.

Youth ministry has been part of my blood ever since. After high school, I commuted to Philadelphia College of Bible (now Philadelphia Biblical University), worked with Student Venture my freshman year until Bob was transfered to Ohio. Shortly thereafter I became an intern at a fairly large local church and in October of my sophomore year (1999) I left my Dad’s church and started working there as a small group leader and teacher, later to become the High School Director in 2001.

As many church youth ministries do, the youth group at that church really cut back a lot during the summer, relieving me of most of my responsibilities. So, rather than sit around and work a normal job that would pay for college, I took the opportunity to go away somewhere and serve in youth ministry. In 1998 and 1999 I served as a counselor at a Christian camp I attended every year as a kid. In 2000, a church in Virginia Beach actually took me, a 19-year-old kid, to serve as their interim youth pastor! The final three weeks of that summer I spent in Amsterdam working with Billy Graham’s Amsterdam 2000 evangelism training conference. When summer of 2001 came around, I had made a connection with Bill Scott of ZJam Youth Ministries in Nashville, Tennessee, and moved there to work with the radio show, write daily Bible studies, direct TeenHopeLine.com and a lot more. That’s also the summer God provided just enough money so I could pay for college the next semester and still have $0.81 left over in my bank account after I purchased books! After graduating from college, I spent the summer of 2002 directing a camp for inner-city Angel Tree children before I drove to Texas to attend Dallas Theological Seminary.

While in seminary, I served as a youth pastor at two different churches, one being a church plant that closed a year after I joined (not because of me! lol) and the other at a church where the pastor later moved to Minnesota and connected me with the youth ministry position at his new church, the position I currently hold.

All this because my parents taught me from a young age that church is a place where you serve and because an adult built a relationship with me whose passion for sharing Christ with students became contagious. If you need proof that relationships are more important than programs, here I am!

The Schmoyer Family

2. When starting in my new youth ministry position, I’m glad I spent more time getting to know people than trying to figure out what to do with the youth group. The better I knew the people, the easier that was anyway.

3. I surrounded myself with a core group of “go to” youth workers that I could confide in about ministry issues, struggles, ideas and concerns. Their advice, support and input is always invaluable.

4. Sufficient time off to rest and relax keeps me excited and energized for ministry. Plus, it’s usually during my down time that I accidentally come up with the best ideas for ministry.

5. Reading other ministry blogs keeps me thinking and critically evaluating my ministry. It prevents me from falling into a rut.

6. Building a solid, passionate and well-trained team of youth workers is critical for an effective ministry.

7. I will never implement change blindly or without the support of key people. I’m not a leader if no one else is following.

8. I can never over-appreciate my youth worker team. Without them nothing else would be possible.

9. Serving alongside other youth pastors from other churches in the community has many more unforeseen blessings than I originally thought.

10. I’m glad I enforce a zero tolerance for youth leaders who gossip, even if it’s done with “pure motives.”

11. Without my wife’s amazing support, nothing I am or do in ministry would be possible.

12. Youth workers who buy their youth pastor Guitar Hero III for Christmas TOTALLY ROCK!!! (Thanks, guys!)

Plus, people tend to enjoy what they’re good at and dislike the tasks they’re weak in, so if everyone in a team focuses on their strengths and balance each other out, then that should be one happy and highly successful team!

The moral of the story: Communicate God’s Word with God, not your own word without God.

I guess it’s a good problem to have, but I’m totally confused about how we got to this point over just one summer. My church traditionally slows down their ministry programs during the summer, so I followed suit by having nothing more than two Bible studies at my house each week and a couple big trips. Most of our expansion is with the jr. high and I know several of them got fired up by hanging out at my house. Without any initiative, the jr. highers invited many friends to my house (some of them said it was the highlight of their summer!), but that doesn’t account for all the growth. Our youth ministry also made some pretty significant scheduling and programming changes based on months of dreaming a new vision, several volunteer trainings and solidifying as a team. We communicated well with each other, with parents, students and church staff, so it all seemed to flow pretty naturally as we progressed to this point. I know there also were several teams of incredible volunteers working diligently to overhaul programs, organize new ones, plan events and a secretary who took over many of my administrative tasks just so I can focus more on students. Having a new youth pastor in place naturally adds excitement and everything we do is based on prayer, asking for God’s wisdom and guidance.

So why all the growth? I don’t know. I’m not complaining, just perplexed, but maybe I shouldn’t be. We didn’t plan for this on purpose, we just wanted to be as effective as possible in all that we do in order to bring glory to God throughout all generations. I guess He’s honoring that and deems us as faithful stewards. What a tremendous responsibility; what an overwhelming privilege.

Once again a message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, give your people this message: ‘When I bring an army against a country, the people of that land choose one of their own to be a watchman. When the watchman sees the enemy coming, he sounds the alarm to warn the people. Then if those who hear the alarm refuse to take action, it is their own fault if they die. They heard the alarm but ignored it, so the responsibility is theirs. If they had listened to the warning, they could have saved their lives. But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t sound the alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their captivity. They will die in their sins, but I will hold the watchman responsible for their deaths.’

“Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me. If I announce that some wicked people are sure to die and you fail to tell them to change their ways, then they will die in their sins, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. But if you warn them to repent and they don’t repent, they will die in their sins, but you will have saved yourself.” Ezekiel 33:1-8 (NLT)

I’m surrounded by Christian subculture! I can probably count on one hand the number of unsaved people I regularly spend time with. That’s pathetic. This needs to change…

And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled. For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, “Our God’s hand of protection is on all who worship him, but his fierce anger rages against those who abandon him.” So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer. Ezra 8:21-23 (NLT)

I can just picture Ezra kicking himself and thinking, “Shoot! We told the king that God is in control and will protect us, but now we actually have to stake our lives on it.” To make matters worse, they had over 36 tons of gold and silver to transport with them (verses 26-27). Now, I’m no genius, but if I were a bandit it wouldn’t take me long to figure out that 36 tons of gold and silver is a pretty good loot. If I’m going to attack anyone, it’s them!

So Ezra orders everyone to fast and pray for God’s protection. The best part is verse 23: “…and he heard our prayer.” They don’t leave camp until verse 31, but they are confident that God heard their prayer and are ready to act on it. The result?

And the gracious hand of our God protected us and saved us from enemies and bandits along the way. So we arrived safely in Jerusalem, where we rested for three days. Ezra 8:31-32 (NLT)

Ezra took a astronomical risk. He risked the lives of many people and all the treasures for the temple, but even more important, he risked the reputation of his God. He laid it all down on the line. He told the king that God is in complete control and then was placed in a position where he had to prove it. Through prayer and fasting he put his actions where his mouth was and watched God prove His faithfulness in astronomical ways.

As a Bible teacher, I challenge the students in my youth group to do a lot of things. I tell them how God is in complete control, how powerful He is and that He is always faithful. But then in my own life I work hard to maintain control over everything I can. I don’t take some risks because the outcome is uncertain. Some risks seem so foolish I immediately dismiss them as illogical, but how illogical was it for Ezra to take off through the desert with all that gold and silver and no military protection? That seems pretty stupid to me, but God called them to go to Jerusalem and they went, no matter the cost, and God took care of all the details. I wish I had that kind of guts, the kind of faith that would cause me to fast and pray and follow in obedience even if it may cost me my life. I’d rather die following God than live in spiritual disobedience.

Maybe I don’t see the power of God at work in my life as much as I’d like because I don’t often give Him the opportunity to do so. In the words of Mark Batterson, “The problem with 100% guarantees is that it completely removes faith from the equation.” I desperately want to be like Ezra. I want my personal life and my ministry to both reflect Ezra’s guts and Ezra’s faith in God.

Ephesians 1:19-20
“I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” (NLT)

Ephesians 3:20-21
“Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.” (NLT)

This mighty power, the same power that raised a dead man back to life, is for me. God is working in me and wants to accomplish infinitely more than I can ever hope for or imagine. Not so people will think how great I am, but so that he will be glorified through me and people’s eyes will be directed toward him because of it.

This really challenged my approach to ministry. Too often I place unfounded limits on what my service in youth ministry can accomplish for Christ. Common excuses relate to a lack of funding for different ideas, not enough man-power to execute the plan, or how uncomfortable/offensive it might feel for me or others involved. However, I think the biggest reason I don’t dream outside all boundaries is because I really don’t believe my dreams will actually fly. They’re too big, outside the limits of my resources. And if I try anyway, I’m afraid they might fail and erode my credibility. I’m afraid of the criticism that will come as a result. Plus, it’s just so much more comfortable to work within the human boundaries I set for myself. I like to talk a lot about vision and passion and I highly respect those who dream and run with their calling in life, but so far I’ve been too timid to do likewise. I’m really my own nemesis.

As I read through Mark Batterson’s book, “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day,” a lot of my erroneous thinking process continues to be challenged in this area. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out as I transition to a new ministry in Minnesota over the next couple months.

I pray God gives me vision, passion and an unstoppable drive to “accomplish infinitely more than I could ever dare to ask or hope” so that he might be glorified through me.

• December 2005: Dana and I started dating again after taking an 8-month break.
• January 2006: Dana starts student teaching and moves in with a family from church.
• April 2006: Dana and I are engaged.
• April 2006: The realization sinks in that I’m getting married and am no longer responsible for only myself.
• April 2006: Dana passes her ESL certification test.
• May 2006: Dana graduates from college and moves back home.
• May 2006: Churches start contacting me about youth ministry positions.
• June 2006: I direct the 7th-9th graders at church camp for a week.
• June 2006: I spend two weeks in the Ukraine right before the wedding.
• July 2006: I arrive home from the Ukraine to find out that my part-time IT job no longer exists.
• July 2006: Dana and I get married, become part of new families, and start learning how to live with each other.
• July 2006: As a married couple, we begin living with a totally different budget.
• August 2006: Dana’s search for a teaching position becomes pretty frustrating.
• August 2006: Dana starts a temp job.
• October 2006: Our pastor moves to a new church, which starts many ministry transitions in my current church.
• December 2006: I accept a new youth ministry position in Minnesota.
• February 2007: We move across the country to a new ministry.

I am so looking forward to settling down and hopefully enjoying some stability in 2007.

Thanks, Dad, for everything and your influence that has helped shape me into the person I am today!

• You’ve modeled servanthood to me.
• You’ve shown me what it means to be the spiritual leader of a family.
• You’ve demonstrated that church and God should always be our #1 priority.
• You’ve instilled positive spiritual experiences within me.
• You listen to our tough decisions and respond with wisdom.
• You set an example for humility.
• You’re dedicated to your family.
• You’ve shown me that serving others is more important than serving myself.
• You’ve challenged me to take every situation to God in prayer.
• You showed us respect by listening to us while disciplining.
• Your love and support for me is very evident in all that I do.
• Thanks for teaching us family values and investing into me personally.
• Thanks for modeling diligence and faithfulness in spite of difficulties and opposition.
• You’ve challenged me to pray about every decision, big and small.
• Your love and support is always evident.
• You taught me that scripture is dependable and is the foundation of life.
• You’re a great model of the necessary balance between ministry, family, relaxation and staying fit.
• Thanks for caring so much about our upbringing that you invested countless hours into home schooling us.
• Your continued quest for knowledge and understanding inspires me to do the same.
• You willingness to try new and sometimes uncomfortable things challenges me to do the same.
• I pray that one day I will be able to pass on to my children the abundance of spiritual knowledge and insight that you’ve passed on to me.
• Thanks for modeling a life that is devoted to God.
• Your constant availability to your young children shows how much you care for us in being a stable presence in our lives.
• Thanks for immediately changing your ministry responsibilities when I asked you to attend my wrestling matches.
• You helped me choose friends wisely and encouraged me to be the one to influence them.
• You taught me that the heart and romance are immensely valuable and should always be addressed with prayerful consideration.
• You demonstrated that your wife always comes before children and ministry.
• I figure if you can find time to exercise and stay in shape, then there’s no excuse why I can’t either.
• Through your example I’ve learned to be wise with the financial resources God’s provided, as small or large as they might be.
• While growing up I was greatly influenced by watching you trust God with little details.
• You’ve shown me that gifts from the Lord are always meant to be shared with others.

I am a young pastor (26 years old) and have found that my peers in ministry often throw this verse around in order to justify themselves when any type of criticism comes their way. Rather than heeding advice from those older and wiser, they let wise input bounce right off with this verse in mind. They think, “The church elders are just looking down on me because I’m young, but scripture says I shouldn’t let them despise me, so I’m right, they’re wrong.” This attitude is so dangerous and feeds arrogance like nothing else. As a young pastor, the balance to this passage is knowing the difference between legitimate criticism and illegitimate criticism, heeding what’s said with wisdom and respectfully disregarding what’s not.

Likewise, in seminary we were given clay to play with as an example of the kinesthetic learner. As soon as the object lesson was over, everyone put the clay away and immediately took up pen and paper to start writing notes in a neat linear fashion. I, however, was the only one who continued to play with the clay throughout the entire class period. (The prof actually pointed me out at the end of class as a positive example, too. Apparently most seminarians aren’t kinesthetic.)

A couple weeks ago I posted a review on Shane Hipp’s book, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How media shapes faith, the gospel, and church. In it he makes an interesting observation about the influence of the Internet and, having grown up with the Internet, I think he’s accurate.

A book presents an extensive, in-depth monologue or a thorough argument carefully crafted in linear, successive paragraphs and pages (left brain). In contrast the Internet presents a nonlinear web of interconnected pages and a vast mosaic of hyper links with absolutely no beginning, middle, or end (right brain). (page 132)

I’ve been playing on the Internet for most of my life. Maybe this non-linear influence is part of why I prefer magazines and blogs over books. It’s also why my notes are randomly spread out over a sheet of paper “linked” with lines. Looks like my thought-formulating process has been significantly impacted by the web. Kinda scary how technology unintentionally influences us.

The hardest part of youth ministry is the emotional toll it takes to be involved with students’ lives and see them giving in to the deceit of sin despite what they know is right. It breaks my heart. But it reminds me how often I do the same. Now I understand a little of how God must feel about me.

I recently came across the narrative of this story I wrote for an only Bible study and thought I’d post it here for anyone who wants a peek into the near-instant life-change that God did in my life. Believe me, these are lessons I will never forget.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

“O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” (1 Kings 18:36-37)

The idea in scripture is that God IMMEDIATELY answered his prayer by sending down fire from heaven that not only burned the sacrificed bull, but also consumed the entire alter, stones, water and everything! WOW!!

Man, I pray like a wuss!

• When I pray I like to remain somewhat reserved and not pray for things that are too radical so I don’t unnecessarily get my hopes up.

• I like to pray for things I feel like I can still keep some kind of control over in case I need to help God out.

• I like to pray with 50/50 faith: “Maybe God will answer, maybe He won’t. Who knows? Let’s see what happens.”

In comparison, I observe a couple things about Elijah.

• He risked his life to be in public. He was a wanted man for being a prophet of God (1 Kings 18:9-14). There was a death wish on his head, so for him to come out from hiding was a very bold and risky action.

• He obeyed God with such confidence that he was willing to put his neck and God’s reputation on the line.

• Because of his obedience, he could boldly pray according to the will of God.

• He had no control over the outcome of his prayer or his obedience to God. For all he knew, God would use this situation to prove something else or nothing at all. He had great faith to proceed.

Here’s the number one thing I learn from Elijah’s example: Maybe I don’t always experience the power of God in my life because I rarely give Him the opportunity to do so.

I go to James 5:16 in the New Testament, a verse I memorized for the community aspect of praying for each other. However, I often overlook the second half that says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” If I want to have a prayer life that is “powerful and effective,” apparently the key ingredient to the recipe is righteousness. The obvious question I then ask myself is, “What is righteousness?” and “Do I have it?”

The Message puts it this way: “The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.”

That’s what I want, to be like Elijah and live right with God. I want my prayer life to be something that’s powerful to be reckoned with. I want to live a life for Him that’s bold, risky, confident, obedient and is right smack in the middle of His will.

Whew! Easier said than done.

Marko had a good blog post today about this very subject. He says (and I agree) that it’s important for teens to question their faith and ask the hard questions. My question is why the church at large generally frowns upon those who ask tough questions and challenge the status quo. If our faith isn’t strong enough to hold up against these questions then maybe it really isn’t worth believing in the first place.

I consider myself to be someone with many questions who is also somewhat intimidated by the Christian public. I think that’s partly why I’m attracted to the blogging community, because here I find others who are also asking questions and are willing to give input into each other’s thoughts.

1. Students who are growing in depth and insight of God’s Word.
2. Students who genuinely worship God both publicly and privately.
3. Students who have a burden for lost souls around them.

I look at that list and think, “Hmmm, do I even measure up to that list personally?”

While growing up there were several occasions of homeless people knocking on our door asking for lunch money. Rather than giving what they, sought my mom would often make a sandwich instead (especially since we didn’t grow up with a huge cash flow either), but 9 times out of 10 we would return to the back door with their lunch only to find no one there. Apparently they didn’t really want a meal. If they were hungry enough they would’ve stuck around for it.

My parents were always generous in helping people in need. Over the course of my life they had many people live with us in our little house, including two teenage girls and a guy transitioning from prison back into real life. We also found housing for a homeless guy who appeared to be serious about finding a job and turning his life around, but unfortunately he sucked up the hospitality for all he could get from it and then went back to the street.

Last year I still followed my parent’s example and took in a guy for almost a week. I blogged about it HERE. Even two months ago Dana and I were at the mall in Texarkana when a guy asked me for gas money so he could continue his trip to something important in Dallas. I told him I don’t just hand out cash, but that I’d be willing to go up the the gas station with him. He agreed to meet me in a couple minutes when Dana and I finished what we were doing, but he never showed up.

Along with taking my youth group to feed the homeless in Dallas and regularly visiting a soup kitchen in Philly growing up, these experiences have caused me to be a little skeptical about the honesty of this demographic.

A couple years ago a friend of mine in seminary was talking about the panhandling issue in the Dallas area and said something that altered my perspective. He said,

“These homeless people may take my money and go spend it on drugs and alcohol, but that’s not an excuse I can use to justify whether or not I should be generous. God commands us to give and help those in need. What they decide to do with my generosity is between them and God, not me. I’m responsible to God, not to what I think they’ll do with the money.”

This was pretty much my outlook until a recent post by The Homeless Guy, a blog I only recently started reading. Read this homeless man’s entire entry. Here’s clips of it:

1) Not all panhandlers are homeless.
2) Most homeless people do not panhandle.
3) Nearly all money given to panhandlers is used to buy drugs and alcohol.

Feeding addictions is the sole goal of nearly all panhandlers. Sure, they may use some of the money to buy food; even drugs addicts get hungry, but if a person were to give food instead of money to a panhandler, that panhandler will be able to save more of his money for drugs….

My recommendation has always been, and still is, to not give money to panhandlers….

In being good stewards, it would only be right to get to know the people you intend to assist with money and other things, before actually giving them.

So now, instead of helping these people without assuming responsibility for any addictions, here’s an actual homeless man telling me to do otherwise. The Homeless Guy goes on to say that he does encourage giving food to homeless people since it’s harder to obtain meals now, so should that be the extent of my on-the-spot giving? Getting to know a homeless person I intend to assist isn’t really that practical most of the time, so what do I do? Do I continue to give of my resources regardless of how they decide to use it? Or, do I keep God’s blessings to myself in the name of “helping them overcome problems?”

Dana and I will always remember you and the influence you’ve had on our lives, both individually and together as a couple. Thank you for not giving up on us when we had given up on each other, for your continued wisdom and insight and gentle but firm correction. If it wasn’t for you, Dana and I might have separated forever and definitely would not be happily married right now. It’s obvious the Lord brought us together for many reasons, reasons that will have an eternal impact on many people’s lives. The fingerprint you left on us will be passed on to our children and others we reach in ministry.

Personally, I’m indebted to you for everything you’ve taught me about ministry, working with people, values, communication and leadership. The person I was back when I first came to Redeemer and the person I am now are two very different people. I’ve grown and matured a lot from our partnership. The good times we’ve gone through as well as the tough times have all taught me to respect you, trust you, and admire the dependence on God displayed through your leadership, something I hope to model for others as I have learned from you. Thank you for empowering me to be successful at Redeemer, for always sticking by my side and for your continued guidance through all situations.

Both you and Joyce mean a lot to me and Dana. We will always love you, cherish you, and support you as you’ve taught me and Dana to do for each other. We’re very grateful to the Lord for the time He put you on loan to us and, although it’s hard to see you go, we’re excited that the Lord will continue to use you to impact many others in Minnesota.

May the Lord bless you as richly as He’s blessed us through you. We love you, Pastor Rol!

With all our love and prayers,
Tim and Dana Schmoyer

With this in mind, I often hear people say, “A good Christian needs to do X-Y-Z in their relationship with God in order for it to be successful.” Suggestions for X-Y-Z usually include a set amount of time spent reading scripture and praying on a daily basis. To me, though, this seems to assume that the given formula creates intimacy for anyone wanting to know God. I’ve tried the formula and for me personally it only seems to lead to a spiritual rut rather than a living vital relationship with my Savior.

To say that I need to read my Bible and pray for X amount of minutes every day seems to be like saying I need to meet with the same friend on the same bench at the same mall every day for the same amount of time. I listen to my friend talk and when He is finished, He listens to me talk. When I’m done talking, we leave our bench and wait to come back to it the next day. Any dating relationship based on this “formula” would get old pretty quickly.

For me, my relationship with God is much more fluid. I don’t hold myself to a strict schedule of something I do, rather it’s about something I am. My heart naturally draws me to spending time with Him in different ways. One day I may feel like playing my guitar and spending time in worship, other days all I do is pray. Sometimes I’ll read just a few verses, other days I’ll read a whole book and highlight everything that jumps out at me. Then next day I may only re-read those highlighted parts. Because I actually desire to spend time with God it’s something I naturally want to make time to do without making it a forced habit.

I know people say, “Well, I’m too busy so if I don’t schedule it, it won’t get done.” In that case, scheduling is a great way to get started as long as the focus remains on the relationship with God rather a task on the to-do list. Several years ago a college professor of mine said that no matter how busy people are, if they have to go to the bathroom they’ll make time, even if it’s the busiest part of their day. In other words, no matter how busy we are, we all have time to spend with God even if it’s only a couple minutes. Maybe it’s more an issue of prioritizing instead of time? (Man, spend time with God in the bathroom if that’s the only time you have!)

George McDonald said, “Nothing is so deadening to the divine as a habitual dealing with the outsides of holy things.” Attending church, praying and reading scripture are all good things, but perhaps we need to rethink why we do them. Maybe we need to examine our motivations to see if we’ve lost sight of the true goal of these activities.

What’s difficult for me to understand are teachers in churches today that know little of a relationship with God. For me, everything I do and teach in ministry comes from my personal time with Him. Otherwise my teaching comes from a curriculum book instead of my heart. I then find myself teaching facts and head-knowledge rather than a relationship when it’s ultimately the relationship that students need. My ministry therefore depends on my relationship with God. It’s hard for me to be genuinely passionate about something I don’t practice myself.

Back in Bible college a visiting missionary held a workshop called, Spiritual Dryness. I attended and it pretty much changed the direction of my struggling walk with the Lord. He released me from the X-Y-Z mentality and encouraged those in attendance to be creative with the time we spend with God. He told us that time spent with the Lord doesn’t have to look the same way for everyone. We’re all created uniquely with different approaches to relationships. Reading the Bible and prayer are both vital, but if one person chooses to write letters or poems to God instead of closing theirs eyes and bowing their heads, that’s completely legitimate.

He included a handout that I often review and now use with students called, Ten Questions to ask when your spiritual life is dull and dry. I’ve included that handout below for anyone who might be interested. The second document, Quiet Time: How it works, is a sheet I sometimes use with students who express a desire to spend time with God but don’t know where to start. It gives them a starting point as long as they remember that this is about developing a relationship, not going through a form every day.

I always encourage students to be creative and try new things in their relationship with God. When they take the challenge seriously I am almost always blown away with the ideas these kids come up with for spending time with the Lord. The best part, however, is that this usually causes them to take ownership of the relationship. It’s so very awesome to watch!

Ten questions to ask when your spiritual life is dull and dry
Quiet Time: How it works

Sometimes it seems that we sacrifice solid theological truth in worship songs for the sake of something that just sounds good or rhymes well. It makes me think how many Christians across the nation are singing these words without even thinking about what they’re actually saying. Fortunately worship takes place in our heart’s attitude toward God and not solely in the words we say.

It’s easy to gloss over sin and disregard a lot of things that “aren’t a big deal,” but before God any sin is a HUGE deal. If even “our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), just think of how disgusting our sin is! All the negative thoughts that rush through our minds, the critical attitudes, and self-righteous pride — no one else may know about these things, but to God it’s repulsive. Thankfully, as Peretti’s book makes clear, the only way to be clean before God is by the sacrifice of Christ. And the only way to please Him is by allowing Him to use us in order to glorify Himself. No human effort will ever come close.

After hearing this book, I don’t think my view of sin, my heart, or my Savior will ever be the same. I pray my view of sin becomes as nauseating to me as it is to God and that my heart will always be a reflection of His purity.

And by the way, I finally got some wedding pictures posted. Our photographer put all the best pictures together in a wedding album for us, but was kind enough to give us some of the “leftover” pictures on CD at no extra cost. Enjoy!

]]> http://timschmoyer.com/2006/08/11/convicted-by-perettis-house/feed/ 1 http://timschmoyer.com/2006/08/05/creativity-in-ministry/ http://timschmoyer.com/2006/08/05/creativity-in-ministry/#comments Sat, 05 Aug 2006 17:13:54 +0000 Tim Schmoyer http://208.101.63.97/?p=192 Mark Batterson has a great post addressing creativity in ministry leadership and “keeping what is sacred from becomming routine.” Please read and apply.

A couple weeks ago I was asked about my personal relationship with Christ and what I did to maintain it. I guess most people except an answer like, “I read my Bible, pray, and have personal worship time and 6:00AM every morning.” Although I participate in these things (rarely at 6:00AM, though!), it’s not a forced disciplined routine for me. My time with God is different all the time. I find new and creative things to do with Him. Otherwise my spiritual walk begins to feel like a rut, not an active and vital relationship.

Although Mark Batterson’s post relates more to ministry philosophy than to personal spiritual growth, I think his concept can be applied both ways.

– Went from two part-time jobs to only one (at church).

– Being married in 10 days.

– Packing all unnecessary items in my apartment to make room for Dana.

– Dana accepted a teaching position.

– Moving to a larger apartment somewhere between Dana’s school and church.

– Need to purchase a car for Dana.

– Living with a totally different budget.

– Officially becomming a part of another family.

– The realization that I’m no longer responsible for only myself.

– And more… (whew)

To the nine-to-five office worker, I look like a “flake.” Some days I arrive at the office late. Some days I leave at mid-morning and don’t return for four hours. Other days I head home early. What some secretaries, elders, and parents don’t realize is that I arrive later in the morning because I was either out doing ministry the night before or will be out late that night. I leave many days at 11:00 AM and don’t return until 3:00 PM. Why? Because I have a tough time preparing my message at the church office. I’m constantly interrupted. I work best at my other office — Taco Bell — where my phone doesn’t ring and I can have my soda refilled.

The nature of youth ministry requires flexible office hours. Track your hours in case a question arises.
– page 322 –

I have a difficult time giving myself that kind of flexibility to casually drop in and out of the church office because I (unnecessarily) feel a need to let the other church staff know that I’m present and working hard. But why do I feel that? It’s not like the church places any pressure on me in this area. I’m confident they all respect me and my time. I know I’ve earned their trust, so why do I feel like I need them to see me at the church office doing work when I’ve already established that real ministry ultimately takes place in the relationships I build with students? It sounds like Doug Fields would be the kinda guy that could stay up late talking with a student about life issues and then dock the hours out of the next day by going into the church office later. Although I intellectually agree that these boundaries on our time are important, I would feel irresponsible for not showing up in the office at the normal time anyway. I may fall asleep at the keyboard, but at least I’d be there!

Instead of thinking, “Is the pastor satisfied with the hours I put in this week,” I should be more intentional to think, “Is God satisfied with how I’ve spent my time for Him?” He’s the one I’ll stand before and give an account for the time He’s entrusted to me (Romans 14:12).

I’m reminded that ministry is really for God, not just for the church. Although I definitely need to be responsible and accountable to the people in the church, I have to remind myself that I’m not working for them as much as I am for Him.

I’m finding it terribly difficult to focus on almost anything right now. There’s so much going on in my personal life that it’s hard to concentrate on much of anything. I mean, the wedding is coming up next month and, although it’s all coming together perfectly, there’s still a lot of details to pull together. Plus, there’s stress from Dana and I not seeing each other very often due to living three hours apart, not to mention that I’ll be in the Ukraine later this month for 11 days with no contact with her. She’ll also be on a separate missions trip two days before I leave. I’ll return home and get married less than two weeks later. Then there’s all the financial stress we’re under plus a slew of other things. It’s just a lot to take all at once. Dana and I are both very much looking forward to our honeymoon alone together, escaping from everything except each other for a whole week and relaxing in the silence of our lakeside cabin in the woods. Until then, I’m one very distracted individual.

I am no different. I’m in youth ministry because of a Student Venture staff member named Bob Klein. A couple years ago I had the opportunity to take him out to lunch, just as he did for me in high school, and say, “Bob, thanks for your influence on my life. Here’s where I am today because of it.”

Ministry isn’t about what you do; it’s about who you are.

Through hearing his stories in college and then hearing the same advice frequently repeated in seminary, setting ministry boundaries is something that’s now ingrained in me. I give the time to God that belongs to Him without feeling guilty about allowing time for me and, after July 22nd, my wife.

In order to survive any king of longevity in ministry, time restrictions must be established and kept. There will always be more work to do, meetings to attend, demands to be met, people to reach, and planning to complete, but there will also always be tomorrow to work on those things. And, if tomorrow never comes, then apparently God didn’t think those things important enough for me to complete anyway.

It’s interesting that those in the secular marketplace have made this same discovery and are putting it into practice by switching to four-day work weeks. The author has some excellent input on this matter that is easily applicable to vocational ministry.

(ht to Paul)

1. Media has a much bigger influence on me than I originally thought.

2. Personal entertainment should always be prioritized after time spent with the Lord and other people.

3. Video games provide some sort of adrenaline stimulation that somehow provides a calming sensation for me. (Probably not a good thing, huh?)

4. Why do I entertain myself with music that is anything less than positive and does not glorify the Lord? There is nothing wrong with a lot of this music, but now it feels like time wasted from focusing on God instead.

5. During free time, I naturally seek to entertain myself by whatever means are available. Wasting time is pretty easy even with limited resources. This indicates that there is something about me that seeks to please myself and procrastinate from doing what I know is best.

For anyone who might be thinking about taking part in this media fast, I highly encourage you to participate. It’s only one week. What can you possibly miss in the entertainment industry that is more important than a week of extra time spent with the Lord, self-evaluation, and meeting other personal goals? If you take the challenge, let me know — I’d love to keep up with your thoughts through the process.

I don’t think we realize just how much media and culture really affects us. In just these two days I see that Ron Luce is right — media really does control us in subliminal ways. Of course our natural response is, “Nah, I’m fine. I do a good job with filtering out the negative stuff.” I said the same thing, but now that I’ve removed those influences for only two days I’m seeing just how faulty that excuse is for clinging to what makes us comfortable.

Earlier today CBS News reported this:

Teens who see and hear a lot about sex in the media may be more than twice as likely to have early sexual intercourse as those who are rarely exposed to sexual content.

A new study shows that 12- to 14-year-olds exposed to the most sexual content in movies, music, magazines, and on television were 2.2 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse when re-interviewed two years later then their peers who had a lighter sexual media diet.

What we expose ourselves to really makes a difference in our thinking and actions! I don’t see how this point could be debated any other way.

What if I refused to expose myself to negative aspects of pop culture and media and instead exposed myself more to God’s Word and prayer? What if a million teenagers around the country took a stand to do the same and said “no” to the garbage we’re feeding on? This is the vision that was communicated at the Battle Cry student conference last weekend that I hope teenagers are taking seriously. So far I know myself and several of my high school guys are acting on this vision and I trust others are, as well. (As a side thought, has anyone else noticed the constant string of sexually immoral references just in the TV show, Friends? And then we’re trained to laugh at it.)

One of the things I said I wanted to do with all my free time this week was make a list of things I can start doing to take back culture. Here’s that list.

1. When I see inappropriate images, magazines, and posters in stores, I will politely tell a manager that these things offend me and ask to have them removed. Many of those on the far-left do this all the time when they see religious material that offends them. It seems to be pretty effective for them, so why not for me? If our religious materials are removed due to complaints and people being offended, then we should do the same for what offends us.

2. I will be selective in what I expose to my eyes, ears and mind. Philippians 4:8 must come into affect. Hollywood probably doesn’t care if I refuse to see one of their movies due to some foul language (something I never liked, but would tolerate for the sake of a good movie), but what if I’m just one of a million teenagers who say the same thing? Now THAT would grab Hollywood’s attention. But even if I’m the only one, knowing that I’m guarding my soul and standing against sin, that’s still enough reason for me to stand alone.

3. At least once a week I will ask myself, “What has God asked me to change lately?” My life is so full of holes and sin it’s ridiculous. The more I understand God’s holiness, the more and more this becomes a striking reality. If a week goes by and I can’t think of anything God’s asked me to change, then I’m definitely not listening and am probably focused on something else that’s obviously less important.

4. “Set” my mind and heart on God.

Colossians 3:1-5
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above…. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things…. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Some strong terms here. First, it says to “set” our hearts and minds on things above. Apparently this isn’t something that will just accidentally happen. It’s an intentional effort that goes against our very nature of sin. And second, “put to death” carries a lot of obvious implications. It implies that this requires some action on our part and that these earthly sins should never return, buried and gone forever.

Conclusion
Somehow I don’t really think all of this counter-culture living should be that unusual or radical. It’s something scripture commanded a long time ago anyway. Maybe it’s just taking me longer than most to take it as seriously as God does.

1 Peter 1:13-17
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

Following the Battle Cry event, the youth group high school guys who were present piled into my car and immediately started discussing the conference, its philosophy, and the suggested implications for our lives. The questions they had were very thought provoking as well as their many insightful comments and answers. The biggest question they raised: “How would our lives be different if we actually cut out the garbage secular media is feeding us?” No one was quite sure, so we decided to try it just for one week and see. Our test is now underway. Until next Saturday at 10:00 PM, the five of us are committed to no television, no video games, and no secular music.

When we added up the time we spend each week on TV, video games, and music, we averaged around 15 hours per person. That’s almost a part-time job for each of us! Imagine what this country would look like if 1 million teenagers took their “part-time job” hours each week and used it in Kingdom work. It might as well start with us. This week we’re each taking that extra 15 hours and doing something useful with it. What exactly that looks like is different for each of us, but for me it includes more time in the Word, more time in prayer, finishing a couple youth ministry books I’m half-way through, making a list of little things I can do to stand against negative influences, and to work out at least four times.

We’re only a little over 24-hours into this “experiment” and I’m already feeling the pressure. TV and mainstream music I can shrug off without much difficulty, but not playing Guild Wars for a week is gonna be tough. Some of the high school guys were talking after Sunday school this morning and said they’re feeling the same way. I’m curious to see how our feelings change by the time Saturday night rolls around. Will I be counting the seconds to be able to play again or will I be content with the better use of my time? One thing is for sure — my restlessness over not playing a video game indicates that I should’ve cut back on this a long time ago.

I learned two things on this trip.

First, that Dana requires a lot more attention than I can give her, and that’s okay. She thrives off of people more than anyone I know. She loved college because she was always had people around, friends to talk to, and things to do, but now that she’s out of that scene I’m pretty much the only one left for her. There’s no way that I, a guy who very much values alone time and quietness, can satisfy Dana’s need to relate and talk 24/7. She needs other people in her life besides me and unfortunately that isn’t really the case right now. Hopefully she can soon start developing a couple close relationships with new people in this area.

Second, it was confirmed for me that immature people are blinded to their immaturity and because of it communication is virtually impossible. This has been rolling around in my mind for several months now, but seeing it this weekend in a different context with different people really solidified it for me. Those who are immature can not see how immature they really are, nor can it be pointed out to them by people who care because they’re oblivious to it and immediately view any confrontation as an attack. Talking about it is pointless because the communication seems to take place on two totally different levels. Although I hate to throw my hands in the air and walk away, I see no other alternative and must let God do the necessary work in their lives, not me.

It kinda makes me think, though, in what areas I’m immature and am still blinded to it. No one considers themselves immature.

Youth group lock-in
The youth group lock-in last weekend took a lot of time to prepare and coordinate, but overall it was a success even though I’m still recovering from the lack of sleep. The video of the event is available if anyone wants to see. Sometime soon I’ll add all my lock-in materials to my free resources page in case anyone else can make use of them.

Bird died
When I returned to my apartment on Saturday morning after the lock-in, I found one of my birds on the floor of the cage with a limp leg. It eventually started twitching pretty badly and by the end of the day he was dead. I have no idea what happened, but at least the other bird is doing fine and seems to enjoy spending more time with people now.

Increased ministry hours
As most of you know, I started working at my current church while I finished up my education at Dallas Seminary. The position was offered as part-time, which was fine with me because of school hours. Shortly before school ended, I picked up another part-time job doing IT Administration for a company in Dallas since the church could not afford to increase my hours at the time. Well, apparently someone recently donated a sum of money to the church specifically for the purpose of increasing my hours from part-time to three-quarters time (20 hours per week to 30 hours per week), so I now have increased hours for youth ministry. My IT position will remain the same for now, but I’ll be shuffling my time around in order to be available for students after school more often.

Relationship growing with Dana
Dana and I continue to grow together and appreciate each other more and more. She lives less than a mile away, which has allowed us to see each other every day since her student teaching started. We weren’t quite sure at first how that would affect our relationship, but now we both agree that we’ve enjoyed the time spent together and appreciate living so close to each other. I’m looking forward to seeing how God continues to grow us and challenge us as we become the best individuals we can for each other.

Leadership lessons from Guild Wars
Most people will probably laugh at me for this, but seriously, I’ve probably learned more about leadership this year from playing Guild Wars than almost anything else. Being the leader of a guild that plays with people on different levels who come and go has certainly challenged me to lead by holding to a vision and accomplishing the goals therein by making decisions that are sometimes difficult to make. I don’t expect anyone else understand this, but just trust me, I’ve learned a lot and already see it making a positive impact on my real-life leadership over the youth ministry at church. Sounds corny maybe, but oh well. Maybe one day I’ll make a list of everything I’ve learned so far about leadership from the game Guild Wars and how it affects ministry.

1. We all have something to say
2. We have a need to be heard
3. We want to know that our thoughts are valued

I am no different. It appears to me that these are pretty basic staples of human needs.

There are obvious implications for ministry here, but I’m not quite sure what they are. How would our churches be different if members experienced freedom to share their heart knowing that others would listen and be genuinely interested in what they have to say? What if ministry revolved more around listening to people instead of preaching to them? What if we did more to intentionally communicate love through listening and valuing people’s thoughts? What would this look like for the local church? Or do we already have a fair balance between listening, affirming, and returning heart-felt communication? I’m not really sure where I’m going with all this — just some thoughts I’ve been mulling over for a week or so. Anyone have ideas? (I promise I will listen and value what you have to say.)

First question:

When you first understood a calling to ministry, what was it like? What did you naively dream it would look like once you started following God in this way?

My calling to youth ministry came in high school. Although my dad was (is) a pastor, our church did not have a paid youth leader. There were some volunteers that tried to lead events and bible studies from time to time, but nothing that was very effective. I think my brothers and I went more out of obligation.

My excitement for student ministry didn’t come until a leader from Student Venture (the high school division of Campus Crusades for Christ) got me involved in their weekly meetings and outreach events. He decided to take a personal interest in me and had me tag along as he went about his ministry. I remember lunches at fast food restaurants, him teaching me to prepare Bible studies, being trained to share the Four Spiritual Laws, the eventual leadership responsibilities, and before I knew it I had caught his passion for student ministry. His heart for teenagers was clearly very contagious, a passion still follow to this day.

I’m not sure there was ever a point back then when I had a “dream” about youth ministry. It’s been more like a gradual calling that I’ve pursued. The dream has kinda developed as I’ve followed each step through Bible college, knowing the youth ministry professor there, various internships, and seminary. I know that my first impression coming off of Campus Crusades was that I wanted to go into evangelism, but when my college (Philadelphia Biblical University) dropped the program, I switched to the Youth Ministry track since that’s where all my electives where. I wanted to open up my electives to make more room for counseling courses anyway, so it worked out well.

Around dinner-time I received a call from a guy in the church saying that he just heard from a guy he knows. This guy is going through a really rough time, including loosing his job, being evicted, and needing a place to spend a couple nights. Although he didn’t really ask if I was available, my first inclination was to make excuses about how I’m busy, have other responsibilities, and that this could be more convenient for some other people in the church than for me. Plus, I don’t know this guy and have no way to tell if he’d steal all my stuff and run off, ya know? We talked for a little bit, but when we got off the phone I felt very convicted about being the priest who passed by on the other side of the road in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Then, of course, James 4 came to mind, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” Doh! Even so, the Lord has blessed me with so much, who am I to hoard it to myself and not share with others in need? The Lord has blessed me so I can be a blessing to others. So I called the church-guy back and told him all I have is a futon cushion for him to sleep on, but he’s welcome to it.

My guest showed up later that night and I was kinda surprised to find that he’s an older man in his late 50s or so. We hung out and talked for a little bit and then went to bed. He’ll be staying with me for another night or two since I’m taking vacation this weekend and heading to Houston, but I’m glad I can be of service for even a couple days. It feels good to know that I obediently followed the Lord’s call to be willing to sacrifice myself, my time, and my possessions for His use. It all belongs to God anyway, right?

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for modeling this kind of hospitality throughout my childhood and teenage years.

Of course there’s always Guild Wars. I’ve decked out two characters so far: a protection monk and an elementalist/necromancer. My guild has been becoming more active lately, which is a lot of fun. Tuesday night we battled another guild twice and whooped on ‘em both times. One profession, Mesmers, are very frustrating for my monk character to play against. They suck up all your energy, drain your health, and interrupt your skills, sometimes even disabling them, rendering me pretty useless to the rest of the team. So last night I decided to create a mesmer and tried being the character all opponents hate: it was a lot of fun!! It’s a completely different strategy than my other character’s professions. I can see how it takes a good mesmer lots of time and strategizing to develop a devistating build. I’m gonna give it a shot myself and see how it works out.

On Tuesday I crunched the budget numbers for the Youth Specialities National Youth Workers Convention in November down in Nashville. I also skimmed through the schedule of all the speakers and workshops. Oh man, it’s gonna be so awesome! I can’t wait to go!! It’s gonna be such a great time of not only specialized youth ministry training, but of spiritual renewal and rejuvenation. I’m planning on taking about 4 other adult youth leaders from church with me, so it’ll be a great time for all of us together. More information on the convention is here.

Earlier today I posted on www.schmoyerfamily.com about becoming a contributor at www.everysquareinch.com, a site dedicated to articles relating to Christians’ involvement with the world and culture. I’ll refer you to my family’s site to read more about it, so I’ll suffice it to say that my first article is posted today if anyone wants to read it.

Youth group is going well. I was hoping to have more breathing room than I did between the end of the missions trip and the start of the school year, but oh well. The youth leaders and I met last evening to finalize dates for trainings, small groups start-up, and other stuff. Everything is underway and going well, I just need to enforce my principle of leaving work at the church. There’s always more to do. I haven’t brought any home with me yet, which is good, but it’s tempting sometimes, especially since I enjoy doing it, ya know? But I know I need to pace myself and not burn out with too much work in the beginning.

Oh, I’m getting a raise at Dean International, too. I start paying back seminary loans this month and will no longer have a roommate to split bills with, so I approached the guy who contracts me about a raise and it looks like it’s gonna go through. I already have the raise for whenever I work on their struggling websites and the overall raise is pending the company CEO/owner’s approval.

Last weekend I went up to Texarkana to give Dana back her stuff and to get mine back. I ended up hanging out for a while, which was cool. We were able to talk and be normal again. It’s good to be able to be friends now and comfortable around each other.

This coming weekend I’m going down to Houston to spend Friday evening and Saturday with David and Adrienne. Apparently they’re both pretty bored already, so my entertainment is on the way… whatever that is. It should be fun regardless.

That’s enough of a book for today. I may not post often, Adrienne, but I think I make up for it when I finally do.